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What is #bitcoin again? First, you need to understand the concept of money. Money is the language we use to communicate value. That language is changing and its called bitcoin.

#Bitcoin is an encrypted digital currency or #cryptocurrency. It is not the only one, there are many others collectively called #altcoins or alternative coins.

But why is the language of value exchange changing? Why Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a solution to the problems that we are facing with fiat currency. The biggest one is financial exclusion. Bitcoin is putting a personal bank on every smartphone.

What could have motivated the creators of bitcoin? They wanted to solve the double spend problem brought about by sending money over the internet. How do we ensure that the same money in digital form could be spent twice?

The internet facilitated a new economy but failed to guarantee the communication of value or a payments system which could mimic cash payments. Bitcoin solves that problem.

Trust is an issue in value transfer over the internet. The bitcoin protocol uses encryption to protect transactions and to a record which cannot be changed without consensus from the network of computers involved. This record is called the #blockchain and there’s only one record.

But money is not the only spreadsheet that should be trusted and authentic. Any records such as educational qualifications or a housing registry should be free of manipulation. There are applications of bitcoin which are solving these problems because bitcoin is a solution.

Bitcoin is the trust protocol. It removes the need for a third party who can be compromised. It’s a decentralised protocol which removes centralised points of vulnerability.